New Delhi: The country’s first inter-planetary mission MOM or Mangalyaan launched on November 5, 2013 on board ISRO’s PSLV C25 from Sriharikota has completed 100 days around Mars.
India’s maiden Mars #Mission successfully reached the red planet on September 24, elevating the country to a position that was at par with other elite nations in the global space race.
The Mars Orbiter launched on November 5, 2013 onboard ISRO’s PSLV C25 from Sriharikota entered the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014 after a nine-month long odyssey, making India the first country in the world to succeed in such inter-planetary mission in the maiden attempt itself.
The Mars Orbiter was also lucky to capture the coma of comet ‘Siding Spring’ with the a colour camera on board for over 40 minutes as it made an appearance near the Red planet on October 19 last year.
Some of the pictures it took include the regional dust storm activities over northern hemisphere of Mars, full disc image of the planet, showing Elysium – the second largest volcanic province on the natural satellite. The first set of pictures of Mars sent by the orbiter from space was presented to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a day after the spacecraft entered the Martian orbit.
The spacecraft is now circling the red planet in an orbit whose nearest point to Mars (periapsis) is at 421.7 km and farthest point (apoapsis) at 76,993.6 km. In this orbit, the spacecraft takes 72 hours 51 minutes 51 seconds to go round the Mars once.
“Nobody gets Mars right on the first try. The US didn?t, Russia didn?t, the Europeans didn?t. But on September 24, India did. That?s when the Mangalyaan ?went into orbit around the Red planet, a technological feat no other Asian nation has yet achieved,” the magazine said about Mangalyaan, calling it The Supersmart Spacecraft”.
India joined the United States, Russia and Europe in successfully sending probes to orbit or land on Mars. ISRO’s low-cost mission crowned India as the first country to execute such a project in its first attempt.
Bureau Report
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